Monthly Archives: December 2007

Japanese Mobile Operator NTT DoCoMo To Partner With Google

Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo will partner with Google to provide a search service and other applications from Google on its i-mode portal, according to Nikkei Business Daily, and reported by AFP.

NTT DoCoMo is said to have chosen to partner with Google because its customers are demanding more Internet functions on their cell phones.

Google is still far behind Yahoo in Japan’s search engine market. With this partnership with NTT DoCoMo, which has more than 50 million customers, Google will be able to gain some market share in the mobile search segment.

Yahoo! Signs Mobile Search Partnership With America Movil

Yahoo! announced today that it is partnering with America Movil, the largest mobile network operator in Latin America, to offer mobile web and mobile search services on its portals.

This is the largest mobile search partnership that Yahoo! has obtained since the launch of OneSearch, its new mobile search engine. With this deal, Yahoo! clearly proves itself as a strong player in the mobile search market. Google’s strategy is about focusing on its services and new mobile OS Android, but Yahoo! prefers to sign deals with large operators to gain market share in this area.

Yahoo’s OneSearch will be present on America Movil’s portals in 16 different countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, which represent more than 140 million wireless customers.

OneSearch will allow people to search for off-deck content and information, but also on-deck content such as ringtones, games, videos etc according to Greg Sterling who received this information from Yahoo!:

Yahoo will work with each AMX affiliate (regional carrier) to determine the advertising model that best supports their efforts. Yahoo will be integrating their “consumables” content (aka ringtones, wall papers etc), as well as tailoring the mobile search experience to best suit consumers in the individual countries.

That means that Yahoo will control all kind of searches made bu America Movil’s customers, and be able to monetize on-deck and off-deck searches with sponsored lists. This will be a real benefit for advertisers willing to reach more mobile users in these areas of the world (140 million potential customers!).

When Will Mobile Advertising Really Take Off?

A study made by Gartner predicted that revenues made from mobile advertising will be worth $11 billion by 2011. But not everyone is that optimistic, even people from mobile advertising companies. Business Week reports what people from Nokia or Screentonic have said about such figures:

Kuhn, CEO of a mobile advertising company acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in May, views most analyst predictions as way too rosy.

Mike Baker, vice-president in change of Nokia’s (NOK) ad business, also sees a longer wait, suggesting it will take at least five years for the industry to surpass $10 billion in annual revenue. “The near-term visibility is cloudy,” he says.

I think 2007 was really the year when mobile advertising companies really started to push their services and big brands trying them. We just need to be patient to see where we’re headed, and maybe see the big tech brands such as Google or Microsoft adjusting their strategies.

Advertising With Mobile AdWords Just Got Easier

Many companies do not invest money in mobile marketing because they think it’s too complicated, or don’t have the resources to create a mobile site. AdWords for mobile just launched a new feature that should solve these problems.

When creating a Google Mobile AdWords, you’ll be asked if you want Google to create a mobile landing page for you, free of charge and hosted by Google. Here’s the announcement from the Inside AdWords blog:

According to Internet market research powerhouse eMarketer, the mobile search advertising market size is currently $13.5 million and growing – by a projected factor of 50 – within the next four years. With everyone buzzing about mobile these days, we wanted to tell you straight from the horse’s mouth about some sophisticated new tools and features that we’ve recently rolled out to help you run a more successful mobile ads campaign.

AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads
Mobile ads can refer users to a business phone number, a mobile website, or both. Usually you need to be a web developer or contact your webmaster in order to create a mobile web page from scratch. However, AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads provides a friendly wizard that creates a page for you in minutes – which is available immediately after you create it. Google hosts the page for free.

Details are explained here. What a great announcement from Google, this will definitely entice advertisers to run mobile marketing campaigns.